Youth Guarantee and Industry Placement

youth.guarantee@dwp.gov.uk

The Youth Guarantee – External Briefing

BUILD YOUR FUTURE WORKFORCE AND SHAPE THE LIVES OF YOUNG PEOPLE

The government has committed more than £1.5 billion of investment over the next three years to support every young person aged 16 to 24 to earn and learn. This includes £820 million for the Youth Guarantee and an additional £725 million for the Growth and Skills Levy.

The Youth Guarantee offers employers fully funded training, financial incentives and a pipeline of young talent to help you fill skills gaps and build your future workforce.

To sign up to be part of the Youth Guarantee, please visit business.gov.uk/recruit. We will discuss opportunities for collaboration and connect you with the right teams across DWP and DfE to ensure your opportunities are connected to young people across Great Britain.

THE GOVERNMENT’S OFFER OF SUPPORT AND OPPORTUNITY

The Youth Guarantee brings together new and existing support to ensure all young people aged 16 to 24 are earning and learning. Our goal is to help young people become work-ready and equipped to thrive. Employers play a vital role in making this happen.

To deliver the Youth Guarantee, we are:

• Improving support to find a job: For young people on Universal Credit in Great Britain who arelooking for work, we are building on existing support and introducing a new Youth Guarantee Gateway – a dedicated session with a work coach, followed by four weeks of support. This includes referring young people to employer opportunities, creating a steady pipeline of candidates for your vacancies.
• Further expanding Youth Hubs: We are expanding Youth Hubs to over 360 locations across Great Britian so that all young people – including those not on benefits – can access opportunities and wider support in their local area. These hubs will help match local employers with local talent and we welcome partners to increase hubs over 100 to over 360.
• Creating 300,000 opportunities for workplace experience and training: For young people on Universal Credit in Great Britain who are looking for work, we will create up to 150,000 additional work experience placements and up to 145,000 bespoke training opportunities designed in partnership with employers, through our existing Sector-Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP). This is your chance to partner with us to shape training to meet your skills needs, while giving young people experience to build their skills and strengthen their CVs
• Reforming the Growth and Skills Levy in England: We are fully funding apprenticeships training for eligible 16–24-year-olds at non-levy paying employers from the next academic year, expanding foundation apprenticeships and introducing short courses to help businesses develop the skills they need in England. We will work with Mayoral Strategic Authorities to pilot improved access to apprenticeships for young people. This builds on increased flexibility for employers, including reducing the apprenticeship minimum duration to 8 months, making English and maths requirements more flexible for adult apprentices, and introducing changes to make apprenticeship assessments more efficient.
• Skills investments in priority sectors: We have invested over £1 billion in skills packages to strengthen talent pipeline into high-demand jobs in construction, digital and AI, engineering, and defence in England. Skills England will develop tailored sector skills packages in

1

youth.guarantee@dwp.gov.uk

partnership with industry and government, supporting the development and implementation of sector-led Job Plans.

• Guaranteeing jobs: The Jobs Guarantee will guarantee a six-month paid job for up to 25 hours a week at minimum wage for every eligible 18-21-year-old who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months, with the government covering 100% of employment costs. We are rolling out 1,000 places in Spring 2026, with full rollout from Autumn 2026.
• Incentivising recruitment: In most cases, employers automatically pay no employer National Insurance (NI) Contributions for employees under 21 and are not required to pay NI for apprentices under 25 (for wages below £50,270 a year). In certain sectors, employers could receive further incentives, including £1,000 for recruiting apprentices under 19, or 19-24 year olds with an EHCP or have been, or are in care, and £2,000 for eligible foundation apprenticeships. These existing incentives reduce employment costs of young people.
• Taking ‘upstream’ action to boost participation in schools and FE providers: We are improving data tools and systems for identifying and tracking young people who are NEET or at risk, supporting all young people to get a post-16 place (including by piloting a new auto- enrolment backstop), and expanding mental health support in schools and FE providers.OUR ASK – SUPPORT THE YOUTH GUARANTEE

  Employers are integral to the success of the Youth Guarantee and building our future workforce. We are here to help you navigate the system and connect you to young people to provide a steady pipeline of young talent to help you fill skills gaps and deliver more opportunities.

  How can you be part of the Youth Guarantee?

  Be part of the Youth Guarantee by:

  • Recruiting more young people and more young apprentices.
  • Creating more work experience placements for young people, including with the DWP workexperience programme.
  • Creating more training places, including with DWP’s Sector-Based Work AcademyProgrammes.
  • Partnering with DWP to set up a Youth Hub.
  • Accessing DWP’s ‘employer commitment’ which offers a tailored recruitment service to helpemployers recruit, train and retain young people across Great Britain.

    The DWP employer commitment

    Employers benefit from a tailored recruitment service to help fill vacancies with Jobcentre candidates. This includes:

  • Support with job descriptions and speeding up recruitment and promotion of vacancies locally and online.
  • Use of Jobcentre space for interviews and invitations to recruitment events.
  • Access to free online job site Find a Job.
  • Expert advice from an expert Recruitment Manager from our Strategic Relationship Team.